Mobile Phone News

Nokia Normandy destined for MWC 2014 unveiling

Nokia’s much-rumoured Normandy smartphone, which will run the Android operating system and come in at a bargain price point, is all geared up for an official launch during MWC 2014 this month, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Weirdly, the latest industry murmurings also suggest that while Android will be powering the smartphone, it will actually be stripped of many of the Google features usually associated with the platform.

That means the Play Store for app downloads will be given the boot and replaced with a digital software delivery service, which is controlled solely by Nokia and Microsoft.

This might be a bit of an issue for Android fans, who were hoping for a full version to appear on a Nokia device, but of course, since Microsoft owns the Finnish manufacturer, it seems like having tons of Google content available might be a commercial issue.

The Normandy has reportedly undergone an extended development cycle as a result of all the reshuffling at Nokia and since no official confirmation of its existence has been made yet, Microsoft still has time to bring the project to a halt. But with MWC 2014 just around the corner, its arrival is almost inevitable.